Incentivizing ‘Lovejoy Revival’

By ordering through Pledgemusic, fans’ options ranged from a digital copy of “Lovejoy Revival” to a Nadas house show, but the band came up with plenty of other options in between. “We just had fun with it,” Walsmith said. “We tried to come up with things we thought people would like and different things we would do anyway that we thought people might like to be a part of.” One of the popular options was a $50 “long-distance dedication,” where the band would sing a song to someone over the phone. Here’s a look at some of the other options available. • Signed poster: $25 • Handwritten lyric sheet: $65 • One-hour trumpet lesson with Brian Duffey: $100 • A ride from Jason Walsmith and Mike Butterworth to the Des Moines International Airport: $150 • Lifetime guest list for two for every Nadas headlining show: $600.

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Des Moines band The Nadas used the site Pledgemusic to help fund its new album, “Lovejoy Revival,” which will be released during a party this week at the venue Wooly’s.

The Nadas are no strangers to involving fans to help in the production of an album. They ran their own incentive program during the making of 2010’s “Almanac.”

Frontman Jason Walsmith called that process “logistically complicated,” so the band decided to work with Pledgemusic, a site founded by musicians that focuses solely on music projects, to fund “Lovejoy Revival.”

“It’s helping us by letting us get the money up front to pay for expenses, rather than wait six months to get the money back from iTunes,” Walsmith said. “It engages fans and lets them be part of the process and get access to things they wouldn’t otherwise.

“It’s way more like having a relationship with the fan base than just putting out a record and hoping it will sell.”

About 400 fans pledged money to the band, earning incentives ranging from a digital copy of the album ($10) to a house concert by the band ($5,000). The group is using the money to pay for the album along with costs of promoting and touring.

While fans were generally supportive, The Nadas and other bands that have used crowdfunding have gotten some blowback from critics who say the music should be able to pay for itself. To that, Walsmith said that The Nadas have never had the support of a major label to pay the upfront costs, and that expenses like gas for touring have quadrupled during their career, while traditional album sales for the entire industry have plummeted.

“We’re not sitting on a corner with a coffee cup,” Walsmith said. “We’re saying to fans ‘Here’s an opportunity to be a part of something’ while giving them a bigger value than just getting a record. They’re helping make the process happen.”

“Lovejoy Revival” was recorded in the Lovejoy Building on 12th Street in downtown Des Moines. The Nadas built a studio in the building, but also used found spaces to record songs and use the environment to create what Walsmith called a “sonic pallet.” They recorded songs in an old vault, a two-story garage and used small offices as vocal booths. The result, Walsmith said, is like the less polished, live material The Nadas made when they started out.

This fall marks the 20th anniversary of The Nadas. Walsmith and Mike Butterworth founded the group as Iowa State University freshmen in 1993. The band plans to tour this summer, with a special project planned in the fall to celebrate the anniversary.

“We look at every record like a wave; we ride it and hope some doors open. Once that’s over, we’re back into ‘What’s next?’ mode,” Walsmith said.